Jessica Barton a Florida model and TV host has just her custom-built 1994 Toyota Supra knicked. Bartonis well known in the swimsuit scene, magazine spreads, TV commercials, party appearances and also known among the tuner scene.
Last year, at the annual Texas Mile meetup of the country's fastest street-legal rides, Barton's Supra out-tested a fleet of tuned Nissan GT-Rs and Lamborghinis, hitting 1,160 hp on the dyno, thanks to a combination of turbos and NOS; on drag strips, the car had covered a quarter mile in 8:64 seconds.
The thieves managed to swipe the Supra sometime between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. last Wednesday from Waterford, Fla. While auto thefts have been declining in recent years, more industrious thieves have turned to race cars and hot rods, since they're often built with more expensive parts and frequently lack the anti-theft or tracking devices built into newer models.
Barton offered a $5000 reward for the car, but today posted to Instagram that the offer came too late, sharing a photo of Supra pieces piled in a dirt lot. "That car has been evolving over 8 years and hundreds of thousands probably invested in it," Barton said in a comment. "I could never just build another one. It's impossible to do all this again. It's a devastating loss to me."
The rarity of the go-fast pieces built into the Supra might help authorities find the guilty parties, and Barton's fans have vowed to comb the depths of Craigslist for leads. But fame may not give Barton any more justice than thousands of other chop-shop victims receive every year. Even a 1,200-hp car can't outrun some trouble.